Justice Ministry opposes MKs’ pardon request for man who killed his rapist
Yonatan Heilo, serving 12 years for killing Yaron Eilin, has the backing of 65 lawmakers in his bid for release
The Pardons Department of the Justice Ministry on Monday recommended against granting a pardon to a man convicted of killing his rapist and tormentor, despite an appeal by dozens of lawmakers.
In June, 65 Knesset members from both sides of the aisle signed a letter calling on President Reuven Rivlin to pardon Yonatan Heilo, Channel 2 reported.
The letter, drafted by Deputy Knesset Speaker Yoel Hasson (Zionist Union), noted that Heilo, a young man of Ethiopian origin, had no criminal record and was in fact the victim. Heilo, now aged 29, has served five years of a 12-year manslaughter sentence for killing Yaron Eilin, who repeatedly raped, robbed and blackmailed him over a period of several months.
Hasson on Monday called the Justice Ministry decision “outrageous,” saying it “disregards an unprecedented appeal for a pardon by a majority of Knesset members.”
The MK added that he had appealed to both Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Rivlin to agree to grant Heilo a pardon.
Eilin, a convicted felon, reportedly made comments to Heilo during a 2010 Lag B’Omer celebration suggesting that he intended to rape him again. Later that evening, when Eilin went to urinate in an alley and had his back turned, Heilo jumped him from behind, strangled him and beat his body with a rock.
Heilo turned himself in to police the following day and said he did not intend to kill Eilin, just to teach him a lesson.
Following an appeal, the Supreme Court reversed Heilo’s original murder conviction, instead finding him guilty of manslaughter and reducing his jail time from 20 years to 12.
In the original December 2013 verdict, Lod District Court recognized Heilo as a rape victim, but rejected his claim of self-defense, on the grounds that he hadn’t reported the previous assaults to police and that several weeks had elapsed between the last assault and Eilin’s murder.
But in its response to Heilo’s appeal, the Supreme Court recognized the “ongoing taunting” that he suffered “during a long period of abuse by the deceased toward the appellant, which included a web of violent incidents, threats of violence, including threats on the appellant’s life, financial extortion and sexual abuse, which included two acts of sodomy.”
